Welcome,
travelers. I see that you are new to the world of Eberron, the
setting for
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons and Dragons
Online. Fear not! I can help
guide you as you begin your adventures in this magical land. Who am I,
you ask? Well, pardon my rudeness as that I should have introduced
myself earlier. My name is Prelixin, a loremaster and sage of some
repute in these lands. Though my eyes may be dimmed by the passage of
years, I can assure you that my mind retains the clarity of the purest
spring. Come! Take a seat, let the serving wench fill your mug with a
hearty ale, and let me tell you of knowledge that will, fates be
willing, lead you to riches and glory.

The Die Roll

The first crumb of knowledge that will serve you is the basic mechanic
by which the gods decide everything and how actions are resolved
– the roll of a twenty-sided die. Whenever you attempt an
action, be it an attack or use of a skill, a die is rolled. These rolls
happen in a blink of the eye during gameplay and show up on the right
side of your screen. The obvious result is a number ranging from one to
twenty, the higher the better. These rolls can be modified by several
things, such as your stats, the number of ranks you have in a skill, a
magic item or special gear, and so on. The thing to remember is that
you want the highest number possible. Let us take cooking a goose as an
example (cooking is not an action that you do in the game, but serves
as a useful scenario). Rolling a natural 1 or 20 on the die is bad (1)
or good (20). Let’s say you roll a 20 on your cooking
attempt. That means you automatically succeed; your goose tastes
delicious, your friends devour the meal and express their admiration
for you cooking skills, and the girl you were trying to impress wants
you to come back home with her and “check under her bed for
monsters!” Now, let’s say you roll a natural 1 on
that cooking check. Not only have you failed, but your goose catches on
fire, the kitchen needs 300 gold to be repaired, your friends mock you,
and that special girl decides to go home with that half-orc nitwit that
you hate. But, Prexilin, you cry…what about rolls between
one and twenty? That leads us to….

The Difficulty Class

Basically, the Difficulty Class (or known as DC) represents how hard it
is to perform an action. An action can be anything from hitting a
monster in combat, making a save against a trap’s poison, or
trying to disarm a deadly trap. The more difficult the chance to
successfully attempt the action, the higher the number needed to do
that action. Going back to our cooking scenario, let us assume that
cooking a goose is easy. So, let us say that the DC needed is a ten. We
attempt the action, meaning the 20-sided die is rolled, we add any
appropriate modifiers, and then check the results. Let us say that the
gods are smiling and the 20-sided die rolls a 14. To that we add
modifiers such as our cooking skill (there isn’t one, but let
us assume that we have 4 ranks in it), stat modifiers (let us say
Dexterity helps cooking and we luckily have a +3 Dexterity modifier),
and any special gear (we also happen to have Glove Mitts of Cooking +2,
oh happy day!). Our grand total is: 14 (die roll) + 4 (cooking skill) +
3 (Dexterity) +2 (Glove Mitts) = 23! Man, we cooked some good goose.
Now, if we were trying to cook some fancy cordon-bleu goose with all
kinds of fancy trimmings, the DC might be 20 or even higher.

The Stats

Now that I have told you about the die roll and the Difficulty Class,
we can now move on to the stats (also called abilities). These stats
not only define your character, but also impact your actions. A high
score in an ability will give you a bonus to an action that uses that
stat. A low score in an ability will give you a negative to those
actions. The gods have allowed each of us the choice to define who we
are; thus, we choose our own stat scores. However, there are only a
certain number of points to be spent, so spend those points wisely! I
chose to have a low Constitution, and for that, colds have been the
bane of my life every winter without fail. First, let us examine the
stats that define who and what we are.

Strength
(STR): This stat represents
how strong a character is
physically, ie: your muscles. A Strength of 18 is a muscle bound
champion weightlifter whilst a Strength of 4 is some 6 year old girl
scout whose cookies you can easily take. This ability effects melee
combat adding to your chances to hit and increasing your damage. The
classes who best benefit from a high Strength are Fighters, Paladins,
Rangers, and Barbarians. The skills associated with this stat are Jump
and Swim. In addition, there are objects in the game (such as doors or
levers) that require a high Strength to open.

Dexterity
(DEX): This stat represents
your agility, hand-eye
coordination, and sense of balance. A person of Dexterity of 18 can
easily juggle multiple objects while doing somersaults and such, while
a Dexterity of 4 is somebody like my Aunt Emeralis who can’t
stir her coffee without spilling it all over the floor. Dexterity adds
to your chance to hit in ranged combat (bows and thrown weapons) and
factors into your Reflex Save. (We will discuss Saves later on.) It
also adds to your Armor Class (which we’ll discuss in our
combat section). Dexterity is the primary stat for Rogues and is useful
for those wearing medium, light, or no armor to help their Armor Class,
such as Barbarians, Rangers, Wizards, and Sorcerers. Skills affected by
Dexterity are Balance, Hide, Move Silently, Open Lock, and Tumble.

Constitution
(CON): Constitution
represents your physical stamina. Its primary importance is that it
adds to your hit points, which is coveted by all the classes.
Constitution also impacts your Fortitude Save. The skill associated
with Constitution is Concentration, an important skill for magic users.
A person with a low Constitution is somebody who is frail and gets sick
all the time (such is my life in my old age!), whilst a person with a
high Constitution never gets sick and eats nuclear hot wings by the
bucket with no ill effects.

Intelligence
(INT): Intelligence is your
ability to reason and think, representing how smart you are. This stat
is coveted by Wizards as it modifies our spell points (how much we can
cast before resting) and how difficult it is for their enemies to
resist the Wizard’s spells. It is also useful for other
classes, especially Rogues, as that it adds to the skill points that a
character gets every level to spend on increasing what skills they
already have or getting new skills. Skills that use Intelligence are
Disable Device, Repair, and Search. I, as a learned loremaster and
sage, have an incredibly high Intelligence. Otto, the stable boy whose
job is to muck out the dung and who has a vocabulary of about twenty
words, has a very low Intelligence.

Wisdom
(WIS): Wisdom represents your
common sense, intuition, perception, and being in tune with your
surroundings. Wisdom is the most important stat for Clerics, but is
also desirable by Paladins, Rangers, and Monks (for Monks,
it’s added to their Armor Class). Wisdom affects Will Saves
and the following skills: Heal, Listen, and Spot. Wisdom adds spell
points (like Intelligence does for Wizards) for Clerics, Rangers, and
Paladins. For those three classes, the minimum Wisdom to cast a spell
is 10 plus the spell level. A third-level Ranger spell thus requires 13
Wisdom. A Monk who meditates and is one with the world has a high
Wisdom, while I, having a low Wisdom, don’t even realize that
I’m standing in a stream…a cold, cold stream. Did
I ever tell you about how my original adventuring party
wouldn’t let me stand watch after those cast-iron golems
sneaked up on me while I was on watch one night?

Charisma
(CHA): Charisma represents
your force of personality, how attractive you are physically, your
personal magnetism…basically, if you have
“it.” That seductive Sorceress who you know is up
to no good, but you just can’t say no? She has Charisma to
spare. Boil-Face Charlie? He can’t even get a dog to come
close to him even with a steak tied around his neck, much less anybody
actually paying him any attention. Yours truly has a high Charisma.
I’ve spent many a warm night in a maiden’s bed
during my travels. There’s no need to look so surprised, my
friend! While I am old and wrinkled now, that wasn’t always
the case. Old Prelixin was a hit with the ladies.

To help you in creating your character, here is a handy chart detailing
the modifiers for the stat ranges.

Build Points

Before you can begin adventuring in the world of Eberron, you must
first mold yourself out of the clay from which you come.
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeons and
Dragons Online allows you the
freedom to create your own path by
choosing what your stats will be. To do this, you spend Build Points.
You begin your existence with all your stats at 8. From there, you can
spend Build Points to increase your stats from that base of 8. How many
points, you ask? Well, the gods have seen fit to give you 28 Build
Points to use (or you can purchase the ability to have 32 Build Points
from the DDO
store). Here is the breakdown of the cost for a stat.

As you can see, having an 18 in a stat at the beginning of your
adventuring life is extremely expensive. If you’re using the
standard 28 Build Points, having an 18 takes over half of your total
points. You must choose wisely, my friend.

Racial Modifiers

Your race also impacts your stats. Everyone knows that Elves are more
graceful than Half-Orcs…and far better looking, I might add!
Did I ever tell you about the time that a Half-Orc chieftain wanted me
to marry his daughter? That was a very narrow escape, praise the gods.
What was that you said? Get on with the racial modifiers? Oh my,
forgive my ramblings. In my dotage, I do tend to get sidetracked and
begin talking about some ancient event like the time some friend and
I…..what? Right….racial modifiers. Here is a
quick summary of how the various races modify the starting stats of
your character. Please note that these modifiers occur after you have
spent your points.

Saving Throw

In the course of your journeys, you will face many dangers that will
require you to make a Saving Throw. A Saving Throw is made when you
attempt to resist some form of attack, be it magical or natural. When
you make a Saving Throw, the 20 sided die is rolled and your bonuses to
the save in question is added. Your bonuses to the die roll are based
on your level, class, and ability scores. There are three kinds of
Saving Throws:

style="font-weight: bold;">Fortitude:
This
type of save is made to pit your ability to stand against attacks
that affect your physical health, such as poisons. Constitution is the
ability that impacts this save.

style="font-weight: bold;">Reflex:
This type of save is made when you can dodge out of the way of an
attack and avoid (or reduce) the damage you would have taken. Examples
are dodging a fireball thrown by an enemy wizard or whirling blades
from traps in the floor. Dexterity is the ability used for this type of
save.

style="font-weight: bold;">Will:
This type of save is made to resist mental attacks upon you such as
Hypnotism spells or Otto’s Irresistible Dance, which makes
you dance in place without the ability to defend yourself. Wisdom is
the stat that is used for this type of save.

I hope that these words of knowledge will help you in your quest, my
friend. The hour grows late and these old bones need their rest.
However, we are not yet done. There is more for me to tell you, but we
have covered many of the basics so far. My belief is that if you know
why and how things happen in the world, you will be better informed to
make wise choices. My belly is now warm from fine ale and I will return
after some rest. Prelixin will not let you down, my friend. Good night
and dream of a dragon’s hoard!